The Nightmare Week
by Logan'sLaura23
Summary: One week. Told from the point of view of Karen, Ben and Jake. Only this week is worse than normal for the Brockman family. Warning: could be triggering.
1. Monday- Karen

Chapter 1

(Karen's Point of View).

Today everything has changed. I started high school and had possibly the worst day of my life. Even worse that when I got hit by a car, even worse than when the mouse died. I was partially dreading today because I was joining a different school to the one my brothers' have both attend, (Ben's in Year 9 and Jake's now starting his final year of sixth form) and before they would have warned me about what teachers I should hope to have and which I ones I should wish to avoid, like Jake did for Ben but because I'm not going there I don't get that little help. It also doesn't help that none of my friends are going here either, mum and dad thought that I'd be fine because I've always been 'a confident young lady', only I think my confidence might fade here. I haven't got any friends now. I don't like my teachers, I don't like the students. Half of them are up themselves, they think they're better than everyone else. They laughed at my blonde curls, and at my new fringe, I used to not care what anyone thought of me but that's all changed as well. I'm going to buy some hair dye. I'm going to use the straighteners that Gran got me for Christmas last year. I won't be 'Goldilocks' anymore.

I walk into Superdrug and search for the hair dye, it doesn't take long to find, but it's hard to choose as there's so many different brands. It's sad to think that people can make millions out of others wanting to change how they look, making money out of people who dislike their appearance. I guess I'm just adding to the pot now. Out if the corner of my eye I spot the razors, you know for shaving legs and stuff, then a thought popped into my head. A thought I never thought I would have, and yet I did. On Tumblr many of the people I follow engage in self mutilation, often cutting the skin open with razor blades. I always thought it was stupid, why would anyone do that but now I'm actually tempted to try it. The only thing is that I haven't got enough money, all I had was lunch and bus money for today which I didn't use (that's how I could afford the hair dye). You have to think Karen. Maybe it was just a stupid idea to begin with. Razor blades. Razor blades. Razor. Blades. Blades. Sharp. Sharp. Knife. No. Sharp. Sharp. Sharpener. Shit, sharpeners, they have blades, I could use one of them, I'm sure I have a disused one somewhere in my mess of a bedroom. Well that's sorted. I pay for my hair dye and make my slow way home. Mum will moan at me for being home so late, I could just lie and say I went into town with a couple of friends I made, sorry I didn't text. I find my key out just in case the door is locked (it isn't) and make my way in.

"Karen is that you?" I hear mum shout from in the kitchen. I consider whether I should reply or ignore her.

"Yeah." I answer, quietly, so that she might not even hear me, but she does. All mums have supersonic hearing. She walks into the lounge, where I have dumped my bag on the floor and slumped onto the sofa, my brothers are no where in sight.

"So how was it? How was your first day of big school?" What is adults obsession with calling it big school? And having to ask about every little detail your life?

"It was okay."

"Just okay? Did you make any friends?" The other favourite question of my parents.

"I made a few, we went into town. That's why I'm back late." Sticking to my story.

"Okay Karen, next time could you let me know, I was starting to worry a little." She means a lot, but she'd never say that out loud. She worries about us all too much. If only she knew what I was going to do tonight. "Did you buy anything?" She probes further, time to lie again.

"I didn't, as I didn't have my money, but Lucy got a blue top from New Look and Em got some new shoes." Karen Brockman. Perfect liar.

"I'll have to give you some money next time, it's not fun being the only one not spending."

"I know. What's for tea?" I ask, trying to move onto a different topic of conversation.

"Fish fingers, chips and beans."

"Okay, I'm going to go up to my room, shout me when it's ready." And I leave.

Upstairs to my sanctuary. To my own space. On the way I pass Ben's room, his door ajar so I can see the weird experiment he's doing today. It seems to involve toothpaste and worms. I put my bag on the floor, and take of my shoes. Looks like I got blisters from them. I suppose that's what you get when you wear new shoes and walk to school. I run up the stairs to see what Jake's up to, not really expecting him to be in. I knock on his door and get a gruntled. "What?"

"It's me, Karen. Can I come in?"

"Fine." And the door opens. I walk in, surprised to see a girl sitting on his bed, singing along to the song playing on his docking station.

"Hi." She says. "You must be Jake's sister. I've heard a lot about you." Why do people always say that when you meet them. It's always that or 'you've grown a lot since I last saw you'.

"Well I haven't heard anything about you, who are you?" I ask blankly.

"I'm Jake's girlfriend." Hah, last I heard he was dating Sam, a girl with long, dark hair. This girl is blonde. "I'm Bel."

"Don't tell mum." Jake warns me, she had this thing where she gets too involved in our private lives.

"Has Ben met Bel?" I ask.

"Yeah, he helped me sneak her in." He smiles, like it was a great accomplishment, which it's not.

"I can't believe you had to ask for his help." I tease.

"Why? Who have you been sneaking in?" He asks.

"Never you mind..." I reply as I leave the room and walk down the stairs. For the record I have never sneaked anyone in. It's just fun to make my brother worry like that.


	2. Monday- Jake

(Jake's Point Of View)

"Well that was weird." Bel starts. "Does that mean that your sister has boys round here?"

"No!" I say defensively, my little sister would never do that, I think. "She was just trying to get me to think that, to wind me up."

"Seriously?" She raises an eyebrow, "You never told me that she goes to my school."

"Yeah, I guess I forgot to mention it, she only started there today." I don't think Bel's going to be the type of girl to look out for my sister, that's mainly why I didn't tell her.

"So she's year 7?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Oh apparently a bunch of the new year sevens, and some of the year eights were calling some new girl names. Said she was answering the teachers back, and had blonde curly hair. Sounds like your sister to me." She said, like she knew more about this than she was telling.

"Did this girl fight back?" I ask, if it was Karen she would never let anyone get away with it.

"Don't really know, I do know that they were calling this kid 'Goldilocks' because of her hair and she sat in a seat that someone else was saving for their friend. Apparently this kid was told the seat was being saved, so they deliberately sat there. Sounds like a right bitch." Which you just said you think was my sister. You basically calling my sister a bitch? Of course I don't say these things out loud, I need to keep Bel sweet, if not she might go tell Sam that I've been sleeping with her. I know. It's wrong to be dating two girls at the same time, but it's not like they know each other. Bel only knows about Sam because Ben slipped up earlier. I told him not to mention Sam, so what did he do? He asked Bel if she knew my girlfriend, Sam. This resulted in her walking away from me and me having to tell her that I was dating Sam but I haven't had a chance to break up with her yet because I've been wanting to spend all my time with her (Bel). I guess she liked that reply because she kissed my nose and said 'good' and Sam was probably a bitch because she has a boy's name. Not the best argument I have ever heard but who cares, she thinks I'm done with Sam and Sam doesn't even know Bel exists, so all is well on the girl front.

"Might be my sister. I'll go ask her. I don't mean to be rude but..."

"..but you think I should leave." Bingo. Now go.

"Yeah, we've got tea in a minute and Dad should be home by now, he'll be in either the kitchen or the lounge, so I'll go say 'Hi' and you sneak out the front door? Oh and turn left outside of the house, that way Dad won't see you walk past the house."

"If he doesn't hear me leave, why should it matter if I go past the window?" Can't she just listen to me for once?

"Extra precaution." I say and smile sweetly for good measure.

"Fine." She replies and pulls me onto the bed with her and proceeding to kiss me. With neither of us wanting to break apart, we eventually stop for air. She smirks. Then I realise why. Bitch gave me an erection. She gets up and smooths out her school skirt and puts her jumper back on. She flicks her boob-length blonde hair over her shoulders and bends down to pick up her school bag. She sees me staring and gives me a wink. Fucking tease. I turn of the music and we make our way down the stairs, quietly and checking for my parents. The coast is clear and we make it to the hallway. She begins to open the door, she gives me a quick kiss of the lips and she leaves, I quietly shut the door and turn around. Shit.

"Was there someone at the door Jake?" Mum asks. Fingers crossed she didn't see Bel.

"I thought I heard a knock, but there was no one there. I must be hearing things." I lie quickly.

"Probably some kids playing ding-dong-dash. You know what they're like round here." She replies. Looks like she brought the lie. "Probably students of your fathers."

"Hey. My students are not that bad."He shouts from the lounge. "Okay, maybe they are."

"Right, tea's ready, can you go get Ben and Karen." Mum asks me.

"Ben. Karen. Tea time." I shout. Mum looks at me.

"I asked you to get them, not tell the whole bloody road that we're now eating out dinner." She really needs to get some new lines.

"Well sorry." I reply, indicating that I'm not sorry at all.

We eat tea in relative peace, Ben nearly puts us all of our food talking about his latest experiment, which he may or may not have stolen mum's perfume for. Us kids then go upstairs leaving mum and dad to do the clearing up and I use this as my chance to talk to Karen. Ben shouts something about having a shower, which means he won't interrupt this chat. I knock quietly on her door, so that mum and dad don't hear. I get no reply. I knock again.

"Who is it?" She asks this time.

"Mum." I say as a joke. I hear her walk towards the door.

"That's really funny Jake, but I'm afraid that lying to me means you are not allowed in." Sounds like someone is I'm a bad mood.

"I just have a quick question, let me in for two minutes then I'll leave. I promise." But knowing Karen I doubt she'll even consider opening the door. Then it opens.

"You have one minute." She stares at me sternly, thinking I'm going to ask her something stupid, which is wasting her time.

"Are kids at school calling you Goldilocks?" Bit blunt Jake, I think to myself, regretting how I phrased it.

She stares at me in silence. Then tries to slam the door in my face. It doesn't work. I use my foot to block it closing, it bloody hurts. I push it open again with my hands, I'm stronger than her.

"Are kids at schools calling you Goldilocks?" I repeat. More harshly this time.

"Why?"

"Bel goes to your school. She heard about it."

"So you've been talking about me behind my back?" I never thought she'd be the sort to care about that. "Aren't you going out with Sam anyway? What happened to her? Did you dump her? Did she dump you? Or are you cheating on her? Huh, Jake?" She's trying to get me to react. I'm not going to.

"So are they calling you names?" I whisper. She nods. I can see that she's trying to prevent tears from falling. My little sister is not as strong as everyone thinks she is.

"It'll be okay Karen." I try to reassure her. "It's only the first day and it will get better. I was bullied my first week of high school." I remind her about something I hate talking about. "Remember the bruises on my arm when we went to the farm for your birthday? Some big kid done it to me. I heard he got stabbed last year, karma will sort it all out." I say and then mentally regret it. Karma is going to come back with a ton of shit for me, for the way I've treated Sam and Bel.

"I never even wanted to go to that school. Everyone is so smart there." She replies.

"But you're smart Karen, mum and dad have always said you're the smartest out of us lot. It's one the best schools in the country, you're going to do really well there, I can just tell." Eughhhghg, heart-to-hearts are not my forte.

"Thanks Jake." So I leave. It's all sorted. Then I hear Ben scream.


	3. Monday and Tuesday- Ben

(Ben's Point Of View)

Shit, I think I've broken something. Why do I always break things.

"What's happened?" I hear Jake ask, as he bursts into the bathroom. I think I forgot to lock it. "Ew, put some clothes on." As I suddenly remember that I am naked. "That's a sight I'll never forget. I might need counselling for that." He jokes.

"I think I've broken something." I tell him. "I slipped and now my arm hurts."

"Oh okay. That explains the scream. I'll go get mum." He starts to leave. "Wait. Do you need help to put your underpants on?"

"Umm yeah." I reply. This is going to be so awkward.

"Well, this is awkward." Jake reads my mind. "We shall never speak of this 'brief' moment again. Pun intended." He opens the door and walks out.

"They're boxers actually." I shout behind him.

Mum races up here and says she'll take me to the hospital, she asks Jake to help me get dressed.

"I'm worried about Karen." Jake says randomly, after Mum left and he's helping me get dressed. "Apparently she's getting picked on at school. I asked her about it and she tried to slam the door on me." Ah, so that's what they were arguing about. I might have been eavesdropping on their conversation (Karen's room is right next to the bathroom). My eavesdropping may or may not have caused me to slip.

"She said that she never wanted to go to that school. Should I tell mum and dad?" He asks me, and I think carefully about my reply.

"No, I doubt it'll get worse. Karen can handle herself. Mum and dad will just worry. Like with you when you started high school. They're probably already worried because Karen didn't say much about it at dinner."

"You're probably right Ben. Does your arm still hurt?" Stupid question Jake, of course my arm still bloody hurts.

"Yeah, I guess." I reply, not really knowing what else to say.

Jake leaves and mum takes me to the hospital. My second home, we always call it. I'm surprised that Karen didn't see how I was, she must have had a bad day. We wait for three hours in A&amp;E. Fairly average for time, what I thought was confirmed, I have a broken arm, but it should 'heal up nicely'. Which isn't so bad, I get to pick the colour of my cast and I choose black because I always say "it's the colour of death" but I thought it would be inappropriate to say it at the hospital.

By the time we make it home it's late or early, depending on how you see it. It was about 1am. Mum said I needed to get some sleep because I was still going to school in the morning, she told Jake off because he was still up and asked dad if Karen got to bed okay. Apparently she went to bed early, after a bath. It does make me wonder about what Jake said earlier though, about her not wanting to go there. I'm sure she'll be fine though, this is Karen I'm on about, the girl who can cope with anything.

The next morning I wake up in agony, and then remember my arm, looks like I slept on it. Ouch. I quickly get dressed and rush downstairs for breakfast, normally after I've been to hospital mum makes bacon sandwiches. My favourite. Jake slumps down looking half asleep and then the only person we're waiting for is Karen.

"Get a move on Karen, it's breakfast time." Mum shouts. Just as Karen appears in the doorway, only I don't notice because I'm too engrossed in my food.

"No way." I hear Jake say.

"What the bloody hell have you done to your hair?" Dad asks her, so l look up, and I notice someone who is Karen but doesn't look like my sister. No more blonde curly locks but deep brown, almost black straight hair.

"What? Don't you like it?" She asks us. With a hand going up to stroke her hair.

"I like it." I say. To try to make her feel better about it, I'm still surprised that mum hasn't said anything about this makeover, I guess she's in shock.

"Right. Hurry up and get your breakfast, you don't want to be late for your second day." Dad says, trying to brush over this situation.

"When...when did you do that?" Mum finally asks. After we'd been eaten in silence of five minutes.

"Last night, when you were taking Ben to the hospital. I brought the hair dye when I went into town." She replies calmly. I'm beginning to wonder why she dyed it. She could have picked a better colour like blue or green, not just boring old dark brown.

"You could have asked for my help." Mum asks, I guess she feels useless because it's the sort of thing mothers and daughters bond over, it also shows that mum thinks that Karen is growing up too fast. But oh well, it doesn't really affect me.

"I did fine on my own though." Karen responds defensively.

"Yes you did, now we all need to get a move on, if not we're going to be late." No matter what happens, I'm going to be late.


	4. Tuesday- Karen

(Karen's Point Of View)

I knew they'd over react, if only they knew the real reason behind my sudden change in appearance. But they can't know. Jake knows. That's already too many people. I continue my extremely slow walk to school, there's no way I'm going on the bus, and hope that no one sees me. I want to arrive late, I want to make a grand entrance, I want people to be shocked. I'm surprised that Ben didn't tell me to pick a brighter colour, that's what I had expected him to say to me, something along the lines of 'you should have picked red, then it would have looked like you had dyed your hair with the blood of your enemies'. I miss how close we used to be. When he started high school, we started to drift apart, I don't even know why. Now I have no one. I'm alone.

I walk into the local convenience shop and buy some chocolate, it always makes me feel better, but I doubt it will give me the bravery I need for today. Oh well, maybe I just shouldn't go in to school at all. I have a key, I could go back home and chill for a few hours, then leave just before they all get home, wander around the park for a bit, sit on the swings and think and daydream, then get home as though I got the bus, with nothing for them to worry about, except for when they find out my attendance. I probably shouldn't bunk off, as much as I want to, I need to make my grand entrance. You need to be brave Karen. I remind myself. You need to be strong and independent and not care what anyone thinks of you. This is your life. No one else's, no one is allowed to make you feel insignificant. You have to be yourself, you have to have courage. Remember that Karen. Remember that you are alive, you can breathe. Life shouldn't be hard. You can make it through this, just seven years to go til you can leave and go to university. You can hold on that long. You can make it. I believe in you. I believe in myself.

What a load of bullshit. I'm sorry but this whole 'me trying to believe in myself shit' is just that. Shit. I will never be capable of being that optimistic which sounds odd because I used to be the most self assured person you could ever come across, I used to have too much self confidence and now I barely have any. This is what change does to you. This is the reality. Life sucks. It's never going to get better, I can hope and wish and dream all I want to, but it gets you no where. Actions speak louder than words, louder than thoughts too. People only care about what you do, and your appearance. No one really gives a shit about anything else, that's why those girls picked out my hair, not my personality, not my abilities, but my hair, something that I could change in barely any time at all. I wonder what they'll pick on next, my eyes? Could change them by getting coloured contacts. There is always a way around these things, but why should I give them the satisfaction of thinking I only did this to get them off my back. I done this for me. I done this because I needed the evidence on myself that something has changed, the universe cannot reverse this, if the outcome had have been different, like I went to a different high school, then my whole life would have been different.

I come to a pace so slow that I'm barely moving at all, I can see the school. The place I hate. I check my watch, 9.05, I need to be at least five minutes later, that way most people would presume that I'm not in today, and I only miss the starter of the lesson. I can then make my dramatic entrance- wait. I need to make it more dramatic. Make up. I'm not going to do anything too extreme, just some dark eyeliner, you know the type that people associate with being 'emo'. I make it into the school toilets unnoticed, if a teacher notices me now I can just say I needed to pee. I apply the eyeliner with ease, I've spent the whole summer practicing, but always having to wash it off because mum thinks I'm too young to be wearing make up. I check what I look like one final time, and smile, if I walk in with a demonic stare this will go perfectly.

So that's what I do. I open the door, with my stare. Then pause for a second, "Sorry I'm late, our car broke down." I apologise with another great lie.

"That's fine Karen" Miss Davidson replies without looking up from her laptop. I edge around the classroom to get to my seat- unfortunately it's the one furthest from the door, because of the seating plan. I sit down, then the laughing starts.


End file.
